Nominations end, rebel worry stays in Haryana

With nominations for the 90 seats of the Haryana Assembly coming to a close today, rebels of the Congress and the BJP are likely to play spoilsport in a direct contest between the two national parties in a majority of the seats.

The polling will be held on October 5 while the result will be declared on October 8.

Scrutiny today

• Scrutiny of nomination papers to be carried out on Friday
• September 16 last date for the withdrawal of candidature
• On last day of nominations, INLD joins hands with Gopal Kanda's Haryana Lokhit Party

Muslims offer to raze illegal portion of Shimla mosque

• In what may defuse the tension in Shimla, a Muslim delegation on Thursday offered to demolish the illegal portion of the controversial mosque in Sanjauli
• The submission from the community leaders came a day after several Hindu outfits held a massive protest in Sanjauli, demanding the demolition of the mosque
• “We have proposed that the portion the MC finds illegal should be sealed... and if allowed, we are ready to demolish the illegal portion ourselves,” they said

While the scrutiny of the nomination papers will be carried out tomorrow, September 16 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature after which the final tally of those left in the fray will be known.

The two regional parties — the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its splinter group, the Jannayak Janta Party — which are struggling to stay relevant in the state politics, have entered this poll in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), respectively.

The INLD, on the last day of nominations, also joined hands with the Haryana Lokhit Party of Gopal Kanda and extended support to him.

The Congress-Aam Aadmi Party talks for an alliance failed to mature over sharing of seats since leaders of the Congress in the state were adamant on going it alone in the elections. The BJP is also contesting the elections without any pre-poll alliance. In the 2019 elections, the party was forced to forge an alliance with the JJP to form the government again.

However, the rebels of the two parties could upset their calculations in the seats which are headed for a direct contest. While the BJP has fielded over 45 per cent fresh faces in this poll, the Congress has chosen not to repeat nearly 50 per cent of its candidates from the 2019 elections. However, the real concern for the two parties comes from the rebels who have threatened to contest as Independents after being denied the ticket. The BJP saw a major revolt after its first list of 67 candidates was declared in the first week of September. The leaders who failed to get the party ticket organised workers’ meetings and either switched sides to join rival parties or announced to contest independently. Prominent among those who revolted are former minister Kavita Jain in Sonepat, former Hisar Mayor Gautam Sardana, BJP MP Naveen Jindal’s mother Savitri Jindal, BJP state vice-president Santosh Yadav in Ateli, BJP kisan morcha district chief Amit Dighal, Shamsher Kharkhara from Meham, BJP district mahila morcha chief Bharti Saini, Himanshu Sharma from Panipat, Deepak Dagarh from Prithla, Kehar Singh Rawat from Hathin and Nagender Bhadana from Faridabad. They are among those who have chosen to contest as Independents after being denied the BJP ticket. Senior leader Ram Bilas Sharma, who filed his papers yesterday despite the party not declaring his candidature from Mahendergarh, has decided to withdraw his nomination in favour of the party candidate.

The Congress, taking a cue from the BJP, declared the names of sitting MLAs in the first list, besides a few others while inordinately delaying the list of a majority of the seats to buck a revolt by those denied the party ticket.

However, Lalit Nagar from Tigaon, Rajesh Joon from Bahadurgarh, Sharda Rathore from Ballabhgarh, Rohita Rewari from Panipat, Sampat Singh from Nalwa, Ram Kishan Fauji from Bawani Khera and Chitra Sarwara from Ambala Cantt are among those who have revolted against the party. Most of them filed their papers as Independents. With the last date of withdrawal of nominations slated for September 16, sources in the Congress and the BJP said that reaching out to the rebels over the next few days to convince them to withdraw would be the biggest challenge before the two parties. Otherwise these candidates would eat into their vote share.